Not my cabbages!

Fire!
The start of the day was a slow one. Not sleeping late, Akarui got up leisurely, had a shower and jumped into his training gear like he did every morning for the Jog he would take around the village before coming back for some breakfast. The route that he took every day would take him up to the Hokage faces monument where he would stop for an hour or so to do some stretches or exercises while looking over the village and the forests beyond. He could even see the training fields From here. It was a peaceful training session usually. Not many other people would come up here this early so he would have it mostly to himself. After working up a sweat, He would jog home to take a shower and move on with his day. But since he had a day off today, he didn’t know what to do with himself. Perhaps he should train himself or find a sparring partner. He could even find Jinzo Sensei for a game of Shogi which both enjoyed. Though, Jinzo Sensei was most likely busy this early in the morning so he would have to wait to go do that.

Bored and without anything to do for the moment, Akarui searched the cupboard for anything he could whip up or to just eat. It had been a week since he had visited the market district to do shopping. It was his least favourite task to do around the house so it had been put off until the last minute. Which now, it seemed to be biting him in the butt. Finding nothing to throw together to make a makeshift meal, Akarui decided to bite the Skuriken so to speak and go get some food supplies to make dinners and such as well as rations for future missions. Seasoned dried meat strips were his favourite to take along. Tasty and edible jerky was a life saver on his old missions in the past where he was out in the wild for days at a time.

Giving up the search, he got ready to leave the house. Although he was just in casual clothes now, he always wore his Shinobi forehead protector even on days off like today. He didn’t however wear his Katana. It would just get in the way as well as scaring the civilians. He didn’t have time for the odd looks and the wide berths they gave him when he wore it so thought best to just leave it at home instead. After grabbing a couple of bags to store the food he would be buying, Akarui left out the balcony with a practiced hop down to the streets. No one found it odd since he had done it since he was exiled and starting living here so he carried on his way along the street greeting neighbours with a smile and a wave or nod as he walked passed. It was a much better than when he lived within his clan. Happy replies came back instead of rude insults. Coming upon a vender pulling his large handcart with a net thrown over to cover the contents towards the market district. Akarui walked up besides the man pulling the cart to speak with him about today’s market prices and wants not in for the season. He was Jinzo Senseis Shogi partner so Akarui had met him several times and even lost to him several times in Shogi himself. After they would all laugh and drink late into the night before each stumbling home drunkenly.

“Hey Old man Kyabetsu, off to the market this morning? Here, let me pull that. It’s no problem.” Akarui spoke and reached out to take the hand poles of the handcart. Old man Kyabetsu happily relinquished the cart to Akarui without a protest chuckling as he did so clearly expecting it.

“Mornin’ Young Lad, indeed. Got a whole harvest to sell before it all spoils on me. What about you lad? Shopping day this week? You always turn up to take the cart, you want to know how the market is going dont you?” Old man Kyabetsu got straight to the point while he stroked his rough beard that hide his smile. He knew every week on the same day Akarui would go shopping and come find him at this time, no matter the street for the insider markets knowledge. They were a tight community after all so shop owners scratched each other’s back while giving close family and friends tips on the market on what hot and what’s not.

They chatted about what Akarui wanted to know and then about other thing on their way towards the market district. Going his separate ways from old man Kyabetsu, Akarui went to do his shopping around the market square looking at one stall after another. He was looking at a new Kunai at the stall the Konohagakure ninja shop ran when he heard screaming. Spinning around brandishing a Kunai of his own pulled from his one sleeved jacket scanning the area as fast as he could, he saw smoke coming from a shop front on the other side of the large market square.

“Fire! FIRE! Ahhh!” “Fire! Quick, somebody get Shinobi!” “Run! There’s a fire!” “It’s spreading!” Pandemonium broke out as people starting screaming and running from the fire. Most people were running away but a fair few stayed to run to the fire. Amidst the chaos a clear authoritative voice sounded. “STAY CALM! CIVILIANS CLEAR THE AREA IN AN ORDERLY FASHION! SHINOBI STAY AND STOP THE SPREAD OF THE FIRE AND ASSIST THOSE WHO NEED IT. MOVE!”

Akarui recovered from his stupor at that orders being thrown by a masked Shinobi on a roof near the flaming building with a couple more masked Shinobi turning up immediately after the call. They were Anbu that served directly under the Hokage doing his bidding. All Shinobi in the immediate area scrambled into action as soon as they got their orders from the Anbu. The building that caught fire was a warehouse for clothes to be store so it was rather flammable. The fire had reached the second floor and the first floors on the two building surrounding it. Akarui returned the Kunai to the sheath in his sleeve and dashed towards the fire to see where he could help. Upon arriving he saw a person run out the door coughing into his arm. Akarui quickly approached and helped the man to a safe distance away to sit down doing a visual check first before performing any Jutsu.

“Are you okay? Any burns? No? Alright was anyone else inside?” Akarui asked as his hands rapidly made handseals and a green glow appeared around his hand. After which he began to run them along the civilians back checking his lunges for smoke damage or any other ailments. The patient was lucky to have suffered minor smoke immolation and nothing else. It could have been quite serious requiring medical treatment as soon as possible. Another Shinobi came up to them to check, one of whom was a medical Shinobi so Akarui immediately gave over the patient to the Medical Shinobi after reporting what he had seen so the Medical Shinobi could quickly have an idea of what the problem was and hopefully how to treat it. The medical Shinobi nodded at the report and thanked Akarui for being the first responder but that they will take it from here. Remembering what the patient had said there were still people inside, Akarui told the other Shinobi who were around of the issue and they all rushed into the burning building to save the civilians that were still inside.

Putting on an air filter mask that was tossed to him by another Shinobi near the door who clearly had the job of handing out smoke masks, Akarui rushed in as well in the second wave on Shinobi entering to find people among the fire who were trapped, unconscious or hurt. One the the Shinobi had a Byakugan and told everyone on that wave where civilians were trapped or unconscious. Akarui came into a hallway with two rooms on either side and one at the end for a total of 5 rooms to check. The smoke was thick and black so it was hard to see through without any aide. Surveying the hall with a quick sweep, Akarui came up with a basic plan of action to rescue the trapped or unconscious civilians.

“You take the right, I’ve got left. Whoever’s done first will check the fifth.” Akarui turned to the Shinobi beside him and shouted over the noise and his mask. The fellow heard and nodded so they ran to the first doors on the hallway. Akarui’s was locked when he tried to open it and the handle had started to turn red hot so he took a step back and planted his combat boot into the door with a swift kick breaking the door, lock and door frame in the process but Akarui thought that was the least of these peoples problems right now and continued into the room with haste. Surveying the room saw an middle ages lady unconscious at a desk she had been working at so Akarui ran in and grabbed her up in a firemens cradle and carried her out into the hallways and through the front door. Waiting to take patients were more medical Shinobi so Akarui offloaded the unconscious lady to them and raced back inside and down the hall to the second door.

The door wasnt locked this time but the handle was nearly hot enough to melt and lock the door so kicked the door in like last time. There was boxes all over the place and a young woman slumped over another box in the middle of the room coughing violently into her hands with tears streaming out her red raw eyes from the smoke. On hearing the door busted in, she slowly lifted her head, face full of tear and struggled to stand unsuccessfully. “Please, cough cough, Please get me out of here! I, Cough cough, I’m light headed and can’t walk properly!”

Seeing the young lady swaying, Akarui moved fast to stop her from falling over. Throwing her arm over his shoulder, he helped her stand. “Woah, I’ve got you. Lean on me if you need. We have to get you out of here. This way!” He walked her to the door supporting her all the way. There was more smoke in the hallway by the time they got out of the room. The thick black smoke made the young lady cough even more so he hastened out of the burning building. Like last time, medical Shinobi were on hand to take her from Akarui and lead her to medical tent for examination. He looked around for his fellow Shinobi that was clearing the other rooms but didn’t see him. ‘Must be still inside. I’ll go and check on them.’

Going back into the building Akarui kept an eye out for the other Shinobi but didn’t see him. Half way to the hallway, the building began to shack and the sound of cracking and bursting filled Akarui’s eyes before a rumble came from in front of him accompanying a rush of hot wind, smoke and dust blew passed him causing him to shield his eyes with his arms. Akarui’s eyes widen in alarm realizing where it came from. ‘Oh no! That came from the hallway!’

Sprinting back to where he knew to be the hallway they had been searching for anyone in distress, Akarui found waiting for him a pile of rubble blocking the doorway in. “Hey are you in there? Did you get hurt in the collapse?” Desperation heavy in his voice as he called through the rubble. On the other side his Shinobi ally unharmed with a child on his back much to Akarui’s relief. “Oh boy I’m glad to see you out there. I was worried you were either in here with me or under that.. Anyway, I’ve got an unconscious child in here. we’re trapped and I think there is another person in the fifth room you’ll need to get. Can you do anything from you side?” Both relief and worry thickly coloured his voice as he relayed his situation to Akarui through the rubble. Akarui didn’t waste time as he surveyed the wreckage blocking the doorway beyond. ‘Its too hot in here to use any of my water element techniques. Taijutsu is all I have left.. Then, I’ll crush my way in.’

Readying himself to do something reckless, Akarui bent his knee in preparation. “Stand back in another room! I’m coming through!” Akarui waited for them to do so then jumped a little as not to hit the ceiling and brought one leg up in front of him as chakra surged into his foot at break neck speeds then in a sharp swift motion brought his leg down at high speed while yelling “HIYAH!”

CRUNCH! BOOM! CRASH!

Smoke flew everywhere as well as debris thrown in all directions clearing the path into the hallway. Akarui have jumped back after unleashing that Taijutsu technique waiting for the smoke to clear. After it got thin the other Shinobi ran out passed Akarui taking the child out to get medical treatment. Calling out as he ran off, “THANK YOU, ILL OWE YOU A DRINK FOR THIS!”

Akarui didn’t reply as the shinobi was already gone. He didnt wait either rushing back into the ruin of a hallway from the collapse. Seeing the door at the other end, he ran not bothering to check if it was locked this time and while running he jumped using his momentum to do a fly kick, dynamic entry! A classic to the leaf, and booted the door straight in. The door broke off the hinge and flew across the room crashing into the wall. Not far away, he found a young man beneath a half burning ceiling beam that had fallen upon him while he struggled to get out from beneath it. Seeing this Akarui rushed to his side straight away to help the young man out from under the ceiling beam. He tried lifting the ceiling beam but with no such luck. ‘Shit, it won’t move. Taijutsu is all I have to use.. I need stronger Jutsu.. Alright, here goes nothing!’

He stood up and readied himself to break the beam trapping the young man. Akarui pulled his hand back and pointed a finger. Chakra surged into the finger and started to coalesce at the tip in a sharp edge. When the finger blade was finished, Akarui saw a fracture in the wood and struck out with a fierce strike aiming just right to shatter the wooden ceiling beam. "Nukite! Spear hand!" Splinters flew as the finger sheered the beam in twine freeing the young man enough for Akarui to lift one of the pieces releasing the pressure letting the man scramble out. Sobbing the young man climbed up off the floor testing his leg and said, “Thank you so much! Cough cough, I thought I was going to die!”

“Don’t worry about it. Let’s get out of here, it’s coming down.”
Akarui helped the young man by throwing his arm around Akarui’s shoulder helping him walk. He lead him out of the room and through the collapsing hallway. The whole building was on the verge of collapsing. They made it out of the burning building just before the roof collapsed behind them. Clearly it was a close call but luckily they were the last ones inside.

Taking the young man to the Medical nin and settling him down to return back to help control the fire, Akarui surveyed the damage that was assimilating on the building in the market square. The building he came out of was completely collapsed with the building around it up in flames beyond the roof soring into the sky making it red in the immediate sky. Akarui didn’t head into the fire again. Other Shinobi were already clearing the area so he stayed with the Medical Shinobi and assisted in any way he could. He cleaned and wrapped a few wounds and preformed his basic medical Ninjutsu a number of times on the less injured patients while the serious cases were handed by the far more experienced and not to mention specialised Shinobi.

Akarui wasn’t the only non medical Shinobi helping out. Any Shinobi that knew the basic medical Jutsu were ordered to assist in any way they could. Akarui walked around handing out water bottles to the patients and engaging with small talk to try and ease their discomfort. After doing that, he would see to the treated patients or low priority wounded that he could heal up like cuts and bruises. Most if not all complained about pain to one degree or another and the burning sensation that accompanied it. He ended up running errands for the medical Shinobi’s helping the seriously injured grabbing bandages and the like and returning to the treatment tent. The treatment area was utter chaos at the time with Shinobi trying to keep everyone calm as they went on with their tasks. It was moments like this that the Shinobi of Konohagakure would come together tightly and help one another.


It didn’t take long for another Shinobi to come up and ask for a group of volunteers to come help contain the fire on the other side of the building that were alight. Akarui stepped up to join the effort and left with the volunteers towards the back of the building where the flames had started to burn the building on this side also. Much to Akarui’s surprise, the store that was burning was Old man Kyabetsu’s produce store! Akarui have been so engrossed in the task at hand saving people and treating injuries that he hadn’t truly realized where the fires were located. He just didn’t have the time to think on it before. Now that he had, he needed to find old man Kyabetsu to see if he was alright. Knowing the old man, he would stubbornly stay and fight the fire at his store. Hopefully the Shinobi responders forcefully removed him from the danger. Or surely, he would have gotten burnt trying to defend that store.

A quick look searching the area didn’t reveal the old man anywhere which made Akarui worry about his wellbeing. He couldn’t keep searching due to him having to help contain the flames. Once again Akarui was reminded of areas he needed to improve in. His water element techniques were quite lacking in variety and effectiveness. Yet another thing he had to work on. The list was just never ending which Akarui didn’t mind. Training was an ever important aspect of being a Shinobi. Eventually with the combined help of the Shinobi present, the fire was slowly getting contained with Akarui’s help and started to die out in the rubble. After a big blaze would be extinguished but the stronger Shinobi present, Akarui would use his water whip to come along and dose small fires and hot coals so it wouldn’t start alight again with some success. The work was steadily declining as the last of the fires waned with the combined efforts of every Shinobi there. After a while the noise of the fire started dying down as civilians who were healed left or loved ones came to collect the severely injured and take them away from the area crying in desolation at the lose of someone dear to them. It was a horrible sound Akarui would like as not to forget for a long while.

The fact that life could be lost just like that was disconcerting to Akarui as he watched people arrive and broken wailing families leave. It got him thinking of his own family which left a bitter taste in his mouth. He knew they wouldn’t care if he was killed in this fire or at any point really, they all wanted him to cease to exist anyway. The hurtful words his father spoke would always be echoed by one or two of his multiple siblings calling him a stain on their fathers reputation. Not all his siblings were like this but the older ones were, especially his younger brother by a half year. Shaking his head to clear it of the dark thoughts ruminating around his mind, Akarui got up to help the clean up when it began.

The clean up began as soon as the embers were smothered and everything was wet from water Jutsu employed by the responding Shinobi so nothing was too hot to touch. After clearing a sizable area with other Shinobi, Akarui had earned a rest for his efforts in the containment as well as the treatment of patients so he sat near the husk of a store hoping Old man Kyabetsu was alright after that massive fire. Plenty of people had lost their lives as evident of the line of white draped sheets over bodies. It was heartbreaking to see and Akarui hoped so badly that his friend wasn’t under those sheets. He didn’t know how to tell old Jinzo Sensei if his friend died on his watch. Akarui decided to ask the Medical Shinobi if they knew if old man Kyabetsu was among the dead but no one could say for certain. Though no one had seen him admitted, there were many burnt bodies beyond recognition of which he would be any one of them. This didn’t do anything to relieve Akarui’s worries, in fact it made them worse!

Akarui couldn’t do anything else so he chose to sit down on a bench to think about the days events. He had left the house to do his weekly food shopping expecting it to be a mundane day without any troubles for him. Oh boy was he wrong. From everything he had witnessed he could tell that this fire wasn’t started normally and according to the Anbu who were in charge of the clean up efforts and investigation team, it was likely to be a terror attack by missing nin. Akarui didn’t have anything do to with them as he was only a genin so he just sat and watched the clean up effort for a little while before again getting up to continue cleaning. It would last all day at this rate. It was only after lunch and they still have more than half of the debris to clean up.

As Akarui was lost in dark thoughts cleaning up a pile of burnt wood, a familiar voice sounded which immediately made him raise his head towards the voice, joy written on his face. Old man Kyabetsu was alive and uninjured! Though covered in black ash with burnt patches in his hair. But judging by his voice, he was incredibly upset and raging.

They old man Kyabetsu was holding his head with both hands looking at the smoking husk that was once his produce store shouting in horror; “No! Not My cabbages!? And my store!! Damn it! What happened? Why did someone take me out of the building! I was saving my store! And who lit the fire? I’ll knock ya teeth in ya hear? Ya hear me?!” He was raving mad by the end of it shouting profanities at the Shinobi who had saved him as well as anyone who was in the immediate area. Akarui made his way over to the old man pulling at his hair and put a hand on his shoulder and said warmly. “Old man! I’m glad you’re okay, I was worried when I didn’t see you after the fire.”

“My cabbages are ruined! And my store! Do you know how much this will cost!? Insurance or no! Sigh.. I need a drink..” Crestfallen, Old man Kyabetsu stopped the commotion when he saw Akarui step up and complained one last time before resigning to fate and declared he was getting a drink which Akarui couldn’t disagree with after today. After reporting to the Jounin overseeing everything, they needed off to have a drink.

[B](WC4043)
10 health (2000/2000)
10 Stamina (2000/2000)
C-rank mission +5AP
2000 Mission Ryo + 100 Genin Salary
+1000 Water Release Water Needles (1000/1000)
+1000 Basic Medical Ninjutsu Level 2 (1000/1000)
+1000 Water Release Water Shuriken (1000/1000)
+500 Chaining Fists (500/500)
+500 Nukite – Spear Hand (500/500)
+43 Chakra Body Clean (225/250)